3 reasons Chevy expects a revival in small pickups

Chevrolet's redesigned Colorado debuted at the Los Angeles Auto Show last week amid plenty of anticipation -- and no small amount of skepticism.

Hasn't the market already returned its verdict on small pickups? There's a reason, the pundits say, that sales have withered to one-quarter of their peak more than a decade ago: Buyers can get what they need from full-sized trucks.

But General Motors believes it was automakers, not customers, who turned their backs on the segment by letting small trucks languish over the past decade.

In a rare divergence in truck strategy among Detroit 3 rivals, GM is betting that it can revive the segment -- and take on the market-leading Toyota Tacoma -- with its 2015 mid-sized Colorado. The GMC Canyon is expected to debut at the Detroit auto show in January.

"This is a white space for us," GM North America President Mark Reuss said. "There's some risk. But I love it because there's some risk. I think there's some great reward here."

Here are three ingredients that would help make that risk pay off:

1. Sporty sheet metal

Reaction at the show suggests Chevy has checked this box with the sort of stylish, rugged-looking pickup that has been missing from the market for years. By the time the Detroit 3 phased out small pickups, the Ford Ranger, Dodge Dakota, Colorado and Canyon had grown stale from years of underinvestment. The Tacoma is long in the tooth, too.

2. Pricing daylight

Price overlap with full-sized trucks is the reason cited most often for the demise of the small-pickup segment. Industry analysts and dealers say Chevy needs a consistent price gap, of at least $5,000 on a trim-level to trim-level basis, between the Colorado and full-sized pickups.

3. 30 mpg

Small pickups never have offered great fuel savings relative to big trucks. Even the Tacoma's estimated highway fuel economy rating on its base 2.7-liter four-cylinder model is only 25 mpg. A highway fuel economy rating of 30 mpg would be a marketable number that puts some meaningful distance between the Colorado and full-sized pickups.